When I was a teenager, I was probably listening to FSOL more often than not, so maybe I’m biased here. Environment Five is the apex of what these 2 musicians are capable of. Everything is gentle and unpredictable, no beat “drops”, no melody reaches a climax, no idea is illegal, and sounds that would seem cheesy everywhere else are welcomed on this canvas. Dazed And Confused era guitars dance with wind chimes while relaxing waterfalls give way to something ominous and terrifying in the distance. Nothing short of brilliant.

To my alarm, the assignment from our VP of Programming, Phil, read: “Write an essay on what music means to you, and do up a playlist to accompany your thoughts if you have time.”

Oh? Really? Has he lost his mind?? Music! — of all topics, music — boil it down to “my life in a nutshell”, then? How?!

“What does music mean to me” is like “what does water mean for a fish” or “what does fuel mean to an engine”. It’s the sine qua non of life!

Even if you’re imprisoned and held solitary confinement, you still can hum a tune out loud. I read recently about a “locked-in syndrome”, sadly someone prominent drew attention to it through his eventual death last year in England. Google it — you can’t move, you can’t talk, but you can think clearly. Probably, even if you’re so completely unfortunate, you can still dream up a song, one that you’re not hearing with your ears.

The world around us is full of sound, and you know that everyone is seeking your attention, and combinations of sounds can form melodies and harmonies can form stanzas and compositions and songs and albums and compendiums and all that. We are human, we are alive, we make music.

From birth, our first outpouring of expression is in tonal mono-syllables. Over time, some of us are better than others in stringing those together to form song and to vocally express their compositions. Singing for others. It helps if people love the output, but either way, if you’re into it, you’ll probably sing it. Nothing wrong with that.

The public seeks a performer as the performer seeks an audience. They get together. The intense feeling of heavy, deep drum and bass in the middle of a crowded dance floor with its tactile sensibilities, including perhaps unwelcome olfactory experiences and unexpected visual references. The fleeting thoughts. For those willing to put in the effort, when it reaches this stage, the experience isn’t just “brought to you” by music, it is music in its complete intensity, a memory maker.

That sort of intensity regarding music is there to lullaby you as a newborn and to see you off from planet Earth. And every point in between. The tense times, the times you need energy, the times you need to relax, the times you’re running, moving, pushing yourself, fun sexy time, the time you’re tired and lethargic, down in the dumps, that time you cried.

Music is the facilitator that helps everyone smooth over the rough patches in life, both big and small. It’s there for you, it keeps you going, it sets memory points, it reaffirms your existence and defines, a bit, your camaraderie.

OK. Well. Where are we now? Oh. I’m happy that I did my homework in the end. Music means I’m going to wake up tomorrow and get on with it, and hopefully the next day will be at least as good as the day before.

We asked our Featured Artist Tea Leaf Green to pick their personal highlights from the billion videos (okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but lots and lots) featured in the BAMM.tv archives. Their playlist – featuring The Ferocious Few, Ha Ha Tonka, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, The Soft White Sixties and The Blank Tapes – can be seen below.

In a special edition of BAMM.tv’s ‘Why I Love Music’ season, we handed over the reigns to the youngest member of the BAMM.tv crew, our teenage intern Madeleine Buzbee …

I love music because it is the fence that my vines grow on, and always has been. It is, essentially, the bones of who I am. I came into this world as “Here Comes The Sun” played in the delivery room on that foggy, May morning in 1998.

My father sung “Beat On The Brat,” by The Ramones as a lullaby when I was small enough to hold, and one of my earliest memories includes dancing with my family to Barry White, the day he died.

As soon as I could walk, I would pick and chose albums, grabbing them and running down the corridor with determination towards the stereo.

When middle school came around, things got weird, so I turned to MGMT’s Congratulations; everyday after school would consist of closing the door to my room, and pressing play. At 13, I began collecting vinyl. Laying on the floor in a sea of blankets, the grooves of the albums gave me the opportunity to forget about everything, but simultaneously analyze my problems and address my own questions.

The Velvet Underground’s After Hours led me to meet my first love and the surge of the crowd at the start of The Vaccines concert pushed me into the people who would later become my closest friends.

I have outfits inspired by songs; a special dress just for “Nancy From Now On,” by Father John Misty and a specific jean jacket/pin combination to channel “20th Century Boy,” by T-Rex.

Even when everything around me is completely silent, a song is always playing in my mind- it’s been that way since Day One. Music is cheering for me on from the sidelines during these years of teenage turmoil, confusion, and self-discovery.

We asked our Featured Artist – the phenomenal Tea Leaf Green – to compile a playlist of five songs that totally rock their … erm … teacup (listen, you try to think of a tea pun). Their choices make for eclectic listening, featuring Van Halen’s ‘Hot For Teacher’, Rush’s ‘Time Stands Still’, The Coup’s ‘Guillotine’, The Beatles’ ‘Hard Days Night’ and the
Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’. Enjoy!

I love how confusing it is Patsy Cline’s music always cheers me up, even though it has some of the most depressing subject matter. I also think she has probably my favorite voice from a female vocalist.

It’s fucking stupid how much I love Wu-Tang. How they can talk about the projects in Staten Island, something I can never truly never understand, then talk about spiderman, and green eggs and ham. I love how they have huge egos, with none of the bad parts that come with having huge egos.

I love how Bernie Taupin wrote most of Elton John’s lyric’s. The idea of an artist not writing their own lyric’s and expressing their own emotions in their songs has always bothered me, but the fact that they created, together, the amazing music that exist now is so awesome. A producer can find an attractive artist, and find or pay for songs that fit the bill of a mainstream successful persona; but they found each other, and did it for a collective idea, and annihilated that idea.

I love how The Sonics wanted every channel to clip on their recordings, how the dirt, grit, and grime was a part of their sound, and how the guitarist poked holes in his amp speakers with a screwdriver so it sounded like the right kind of garbage.

I love how latin musicians can always tune their drums, I love how jazz drummers can always play to a metronome, and I love when a rock drummer can actually hit hard enough for the best recordings.

I love how auto-tuning vocals takes away the soul.

I love musicals, because I love imagining the real world as a musical.

I love the artists people feel embarrassed emitting they like, until they realize they were dumb enough to keep that joy from anyone. E.L.O. fucking rock!

I love being an audio engineer, and knowing the “take”, is just the take, and has nothing to do with the quality of the recording.

I love when bands sound can’t be explained by comparing them to another band, or a certain genre.

I love when a legend can be broken down to a normal person after meeting them.

I love when I finally understand lyric’s that were too simply and cheesy, and then feel they’re the only explanation.

I love how punk rock could scare parents into thinking that it isn’t the most lovely, caring fan-base in the world.

I love electronic music more every time someone doesn’t understand it, because it’s this generations noise, and the next generations history.

I love the standard ways to make music, because it underlines the reasons it isn’t art.

I love how knowing more technicalities of the creation and recording of music, can make you appreciate it more, and feel more involved; but sometimes I miss how much easier it was to enjoy everything before that.

I love music because, well, I love music. If I could explain it, then I probably should be an accountant. I understand a feeling of logic, I can prove theories, disprove theories, and yet, never have the same answer for the same question. Explaining music is like explaining love…it’s almost pointless, because I don’t live and love for the explanation.

Here’s the latest in our series of articles in which we ask the BAMM.tv crew one simple question: why do you love music? Walking up to bat this time around is BAMM.tv Editorial Director Christopher Davies …

What does ‘love’ actually mean, anyway? That old stalwart The Oxford English Dictionary simply refers to it as “a strong feeling of affection”, which frankly seems like the kind of vagueness a modern politician would peddle. If we take that meaning literally, then to say ‘I love music’ would mean ‘I really am quite fond of music.’

‘Quite fond’ … yeah, that’s not going to cover it. ‘Quite fond’ doesn’t describe the sensation I had when I first cranked up The Avalanches’ Since I Left You or My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless or Pulp’s This Is Hardcore or any of the million albums that have soundtracked my life, emotions, memories and even moulded my general worldview. ‘Quite fond’ doesn’t cover the tingles I get when Johnny Marr begins that guitar fiddling in Talking Head’s Nothing But Flowers. It doesn’t cover the serene dopamine rush of chillng out to Stars Of The Lid’s That Finger on Your Temple Is the Barrel of My Raygun. It doesn’t cover the laugh-out-loud wonderment of hearing R.A The Rugged Man spit his rhymes (“If i ain’t the best then I’m the closest / I’m like Richard Pryor before multiple sclerosis”).

Buuuut then again … ‘love’ might not cover that feeling either. Because – and you’ll forgive me if I indulge the sentiments of Foreigner for a moment – no-one quite knows what love is in the first place. Why do I ‘love’ music? Not to be a cop-out but I honestly couldn’t say. I just know that it makes me feel something … and that’s good enough for me.